1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a system for depositing printed sheets on a selected one of multiple supports. The system may be part of an image-forming system such as a printing or copying system.
2. Background of the Invention
In order to reproduce images, it is generally known to feed a medium in sheet or web form through the image forming part of an image reproduction system such as a printing and/or copying system to form images of a marking substance thereon. The printed medium may be subjected to all kind of finishing treatments including but not limited to cutting, punching, inverting, sorting, stapling and folding such as to obtain finished sheets, sets of finished sheets or booklets, hereinafter referred to as sheets. The sheets are forwarded to a sheet deposition location of a sheet deposition system where the sheets are deposited usually on a selected one of multiple trays, hereinafter referred to as supports. The sheet deposition system may be a stand-alone system or may be an integral part of the image reproduction system.
Of particular interest are sheet deposition systems with multiple supports and multiple sheet deposition locations. An example of such a system is a sheet deposition system equipped with two sheet deposition locations, one being a sorting sheet deposition location where sheets are directed to in a sorting mode and the other a non-sorting sheet deposition location where sheets are directed in a non-sorting mode. Typically a single support is available for ejecting sheets thereon in the non-sorting mode when facing the non-sorting sheet deposition location, while an assembly of supports is available which can be moved up and down such that a selected support of the assembly faces the sorting sheet deposition location for ejecting sheets thereon.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,669 a system having a non-sorting exit, a non-sorting bin, a sorting exit and an assembly of sorting bins is disclosed. The assembly of sorting bins can be moved up and down and impart movement to the non-sorting bin. Although the non-sorting bin is movable within a limited range, the flexibility of the system is very limited as the non-sorting bin cannot be used as a sorting bin, or in other words the non-sorting bin cannot be guided such as to face the sorting exit. Moreover, at least a part of the sorting bins cannot be guided such as to face the non-sorting exit. A further disadvantage of the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,669 is that the spacing between adjacent sorting bins cannot be changed. By consequence, the sheet stacking capacity of the respective bins cannot be adjusted responsive to the size of the job submitted.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,539 a sheet deposition system is disclosed which is provided with a single sheet deposition location and multiple bins. The spacing between selected adjacent bins can be adjusted to control the sheet stacking capacity of a selected bin. The bin capacity adjustment system comprises two pairs of coaxial independently rotatable screw threaded bin movement members, each being provided with a separate drive motor. The bin capacity adjustment solution disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,539 is only suitable for a single sheet deposition location and does not enable the user to add or remove bins either manually or in an automated way.